linux man page for readlink

READLINK(2)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						       READLINK(2)

NAME
       readlink - read value of a symbolic link

SYNOPSIS
       #include <unistd.h>

       ssize_t readlink(const char *path, char *buf, size_t bufsiz);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       readlink():
	   _BSD_SOURCE || _XOPEN_SOURCE >= 500 || _XOPEN_SOURCE && _XOPEN_SOURCE_EXTENDED || _POSIX_C_SOURCE >= 200112L

DESCRIPTION
       readlink()  places the contents of the symbolic link path in the buffer buf, which has size bufsiz.  readlink() does not append a null byte
       to buf.	It will truncate the contents (to a length of bufsiz characters), in case the buffer is too small to hold all of the contents.

RETURN VALUE
       On success, readlink() returns the number of bytes placed in buf.  On error, -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       EACCES Search permission is denied for a component of the path prefix.  (See also path_resolution(7).)

       EFAULT buf extends outside the process's allocated address space.

       EINVAL bufsiz is not positive.

       EINVAL The named file is not a symbolic link.

       EIO    An I/O error occurred while reading from the file system.

       ELOOP  Too many symbolic links were encountered in translating the pathname.

       ENAMETOOLONG
	      A pathname, or a component of a pathname, was too long.

       ENOENT The named file does not exist.

       ENOMEM Insufficient kernel memory was available.

       ENOTDIR
	      A component of the path prefix is not a directory.

CONFORMING TO
       4.4BSD (readlink() first appeared in 4.2BSD), POSIX.1-2001.

NOTES
       In versions of glibc up to and including glibc 2.4, the return type of readlink() was declared  as  int.   Nowadays,  the  return  type	is
       declared as ssize_t, as (newly) required in POSIX.1-2001.

SEE ALSO
       lstat(2), readlinkat(2), stat(2), symlink(2), path_resolution(7), symlink(7)

COLOPHON
       This  page is part of release 3.27 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

Linux								    2010-09-20							       READLINK(2)